My new life

This week was full of new experiences and first impressions of my new life here, which Monday will prove because I was totally exhausted. It wasn't a busy day, in fact it was a very slow and relaxing day, so my exhaustion can only be explained by me finally realising that I had completely immersed myself in this strange school, new community, different way of life and country far, far away! I've been in a dream here, for the past month, and now I'm realising and waking up and it's utterly exhausting and a bit overwhelming. My life is starting to organise its self and I'm doing less floating around in a dreamlike state. I have piano lessons scheduled for Monday, trumpet lessons on Tuesday, Swedish cooking classes on Wednesday, Blaspopperna band practices on Thursday, Swedish lessons on Thursday and Friday and art classes on Tuesday and Friday. At school, I have the classes and lessons listed above and at least one other music course such as rock/popular music, jazz music, music theory and choir. I can attend other classes like Swedish and social studies if I feel like it. This is like the best school schedule I could hope for and it will be even better when I can understand what people are saying! The people here are very nice and friendly and I am meeting several new people each day. I'm having a very hard time remembering their names, especially those with strange names like Per, Lars, Cornilia, Nicolina and Anton. And there's Pelle, but I can remember that name because he's my music teacher. I've noticed that Swedish people are shy and don't talk to me much because they are embarrassed of their English. To tell you the truth, I haven't talked to someone in English and not understood what they were saying (unless the subject matter is unfamiliar to me). There might be a word missing here and there that they don't know, but I always understand what they're trying to say. I even had a conservation with a 9 year old and we understood each other. I like living in a small town. Anywhere I want to go in town is within walking distance. When I'm with a group of people, we always come across other people we know. It's such a nice community, hence the nick name for this town; Glada Hudik (Happy Hudik). The social life here is not much different from in Canada. We like to get together and hang out at some one's house, or wonder around town, or go to a concert. Hudiksvall has alot of musical talent so there's quite a few live bands playing or free musical entertainment. When we turn 18, it's a big this to go to the bar, parties and dances. I went to one of these parties and dances at the bar on Friday night, and I can tell you that it's much more fun a lame school dance, (which they don't have here)! An other thing I've noticed is they don't have such a big problem with drugs here and kids definitely don't come to school high. So I guess as a result, more kids smoke and there's something like chewing tobacco which is unique to Sweden and very popular at school. It's a little pouch that sits under the lip and releases the drug straight into the blood steam so its more healthy than chewing tobacco but it's still addicting. So I'm establishing a new life for myself here and reaching some of the goals I set out for this year: I'm getting a grasp on the language, I'm becoming involved in my interests and improving my musical talents, making myself known in the community, fitting in to the Swedish way of life and making new friends. Now that I've been here a month, I'm getting a grip on things and it's like my year has really begun!!